Ask yourself this question. Seriously, right now, ask it.
Ask the person nearest to you as well. See what their response is.
Now we all know people who are trying to save a buck and with our current economic situation, there really is nothing wrong with that.
Which is why so many people are being enticed by various $4 generic programs and, god forbid, the free drug programs instituted at numerous pharmacy chains across the country. We all know at least one person who one of the programs on a regular basis.
But does that person understand what these programs mean to pharmacy?
So let's take a small, tentative step towards a long-term remedy. It's as simple as the title of this post.
Who needs a pharmacist?
Who needs someone to monitor the complex interactions of the drugs they take?
Who needs someone to explain, in layman's terms, what your doctor does not?
Who needs someone to advise you on how to pacify your screaming and ill child when your doctor does not call you back?
Who needs someone to dispense facts and not merely what is being pushed on the television?
Who needs someone to run interference for them between insurance companies, nurses and doctors and do so without complaint?
Who needs a pharmacist, right?
If you use these programs, ask your self this question. If you know someone who does, ask them instead.
Because if you continue to support these 'cheaper' programs, not only are you devaluing the profession of pharmacy, but are setting the profession on a path where you may find yourself limited pharmacy resources.
What will happen is because you, and your friends and their friends, decided that it was more worth saving a handful of dollars than support what is one of the most important medical professions in a person's life?
What will happen if your pharmacist is suddenly gone?
It may seem like an impossible thought, but it's truly not. Currently, pharmacy is the whipping boy of the medical world. We have no clear voice to stand up and say, "What about us?". While your doctor may complain about being shafted by insurance reimbursements, at least he is getting paid above cost.
Ask yourself, or the person, if they realize that pharmacies lose money in countless prescriptions on a daily basis.
Ask them if they realize the actual cost of a prescription, prior to the drug cost, is around $10 per fill.
Then ask them if it makes sense that some pharmacies are dispensing these drugs to patients at a minimum of a $6 lost per prescription?
And because we all have to be able to offer some sort of competition to maintain business, everyone is affected by the ill advised actions of one chain pharmacy. There's a reason the pharmacy in your hometown recently closed. And this is one of them.
Take a step back and ask yourself is it worth it. Ask if saving those few dollars is worth losing the interaction that so many take for granted on a daily basis.
Ask yourself who needs a pharmacist.
The answer will ultimately always be, "I do."
It's time to stand up for your pharmacist. We're doing the best we can at this time, but we need a bigger voice. It may be as simple as asking your insurance why they insist on paying us, sometimes, mere change over the cost?
One must walk before they can run, and these small steps should be taken now. If we are to save the profession from the dangerous path it is being pushed for, we all must work together.
So I ask again, who really needs a pharmacist?
2 comments:
What a coincidence! I was thinking about exactly the same thing today. Unfortunately, most people are so blinded by the "discount saving" that they fail to see how much a few dollars saved a month cost them in the long run.
I liken this statement to the physicians' complaint that after the emergence of the internet, there was the general hue and cry over 'who needs a physician' to diagnose... but, patients can't order their own lab tests, can they? Yet, patients can order their own drugs over the internet, right?
The way I hear it, patients don't need pharmacists! They don't want to be counseled. They have no time--just give me my drugs and let me go. These patients coming into the herbal dept and OTC buying up the remedies with a scribbled note to find something. Ever had a patient come up to you at the window and ask what that new thing advertised on TV is -they cannot remember the name nor exactly what its intended purpose, but they do know it's something they want to try! -and, you have no idea what they're talking about as you don't watch the same TV show?
Post a Comment